Beggars are individuals who carryout solicitation of other human beings for money and securing material gains. It is a state which is originally supposed to be adopted under extreme circumstance of poverty and other physical or mental disabilities. But in the last few decades, this has become a common phenomena and thus has spread like wild fire in the developing countries of the world. Unfortunately, Pakistan is one of those countries where this ailment not only prevails in strength but has also paralyzed a great portion of the population.
Beggardom has become more of a business than deprivation of basic needs in Pakistan. It is proved by various reports that there are almost 25 million beggars in Pakistan and the most alarming thing is that this number is increasing steadily every year. Beggars are normally young children, women and elderly persons that are well trained in their job. These individuals are mostly found in the markets, on the busy road crossings, streets, railway stations, bus stands and outside the mosques. It is an established fact that beggars earn more money in the form of alms and charity than a common laborer.
On the contrary, beggardom is strictly prohibited in Islam. Islam has established the system of Zakat for distribution of wealth among the poor and needy. However in Pakistan, baggers use different kinds of tactics to earn the sympathy. They often come up with new and appalling stories to persuade the people to donate money to them. Most of the time their behavior is so irritating that any common man would spare few coins hurriedly just to avoid them. In big cities like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad these beggars can easily earn up to 3000 – 4000 rupees on daily basis.
There is a dire need to educate the masses about this expanding business in order to eradicate this evil from our society. A strict ban should be placed on Beggars and all individuals involved in such practices must be investigated to establish their actual needs. Government through Bait-ul-Mall should arrange for collection and distribution of Zakat to these deserving cases on regular basis. On the other hand, all the fraud cases must be dealt strictly by police to control the spread of this menace.
As citizens of Pakistan, it is our responsibility to identify the needy and deserving cases for Zakat and get them registered with Pakistan Bait-ul-Mall. We as human beings should also support these individuals in the time of their need to get them back on their feet financially in order to save them from adopting beggardom as profession.
